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Location:  Northwest High School, 13501 Richter Farm Rd
Germantown, MD 20874 (map)
 
Mailing Address:  HCS-GB, P.O. Box 653
Germantown, MD 20875-0653
 
E-mail:  hcsgb-admin@hopechineseschool.org

Frequently Asked Questions


Account and Password

How do I register classes on this website?

First, you need to create your family account. Click the sign up link on the home page. You need to enter values for all required fields on the user registration screen. After you account is approved, you can logon to add one or more students and register classes for students in your family. Please do not create a new account if you already have one.

You must have a valid e-mail address. This e-mail address will be used as your login name. The school will send you notifications and other information related to school activities using this address.

I cannot login to my account, why?

There are two possible reasons why you could not login, they are
  • You used an invalid login e-mail or typed a wrong password. If you forgot your password, see the help topic below.

  • There is a temporary failure in the system.

In any case, you can e-mail the support team, they will address the problem as soon as possible.

What to do if I forget my password?

Go to the logon screen, enter your login e-mail, then click the "reset password" button. The system will send an e-mail message to the address you provided. You need to open the hyperlink contained in the system generated e-mail to confirm your request. After the confirmation, your password will be reset and you will receive it in another system generated e-mail message.

Due to problems on the mail server, sometimes you may have to wait for days to receive the system generated e-mail. You can contact the support team in case you clicked the "reset password" button and did not receive any e-mail.

What to do if I forget my login e-mail?

Go to the logon screen, enter your phone number (either home phone or work phone will do), then click the "get my login e-mail" button. The system will display the login e-mails that match your phone number as hyperlinks on a confirmation page. You can click your e-mail to logon.

How do I change my passowrd?

After logon to the website, click the Change Password link on the upper right corner of the home page to change your password.

How do I change my login e-mail?

After logon to the website, go to the "my family" page, then go to the "update profile" page. If your login e-mail address is displayed on the page, then you can change it and click the save button. After that, you need to logout and login again using the new e-mail address.

Optionally, you can click the the Change Login E-mail link to change your login e-mail. You don't need to relogin after that.

If you don't have an valid login e-mail address, then you need to ask the technical support team for help on school days.

Family and Class Information

Where can I view and update my family profile and registration?

Click the my family link on the home page after logon to the website. You will see all the information about your family. From this page you can update your family profile, add or remove a student, register or drop a class, and print the registration form, etc.

What is being displayed on the "my family" page?

The my family page displays all information about a user, including family profile (parent/guardian name, address, phone, e-mail, etc.), student information (name, date of birth, etc.), all the classes currently registered by this family, the current account balance, and all payments made for the current semester.

Please note that you can also see information about previous semesters using the "semester" dropdown list.

How do I find information about a class?

Click the class info link on the home page. You will see all the classes in the current registration semester. Use the "Semester" dropdown list to view clases in other semesters.

You can also search for classes by entering class name, room number, and teacher name in the corresponding fields on the screen, then click the "search" button. For example, to search for classes taught by teachers with last name "Liu", enter "Liu" in the "teacher" field and click the "search" button.

How do I see information in semesters other than the current one?

By default, the information displayed on the pages are for the current registration semester. You can use the "semester" dropdown list on the page (if available) to view information about previous semesters. This dropdown list is typically located on the upper right portion of the page.

How do I add, update, or delete a student for my family?

Click the update student link on the my family page. Enter information for the new student you want to add and click the "save" button. You can also use the "student list" dropdown list to select an existing student to update or delete.

How do I register or cancel a class?

First, you need to add one or more student as described in the above. Then go to the update registration page. Select a student and a class and then click the "register this class" button to register the selected class for the selected student. You can also click the "drop" link for a regisered class to cancel the registration.

Where can I view history information about my account?

To view registration history, click the View History link on the "my family" page. Payment history is at the bottom of the my family page.

Teacher's Space (for teacher only)

How do I upload teaching plan for my class?

A teaching plan is a public document for the class you are teaching. It can contain anything you want to include, such as detailed description of the class, grading policy, etc. This document can be a word file, an excel spread sheet, a pdf file, or a simple text file.

You can upload your teaching plan file to the website so that your current and potential students and their parents can download and view the file. To upload, go to the "teacher" page first, select the class for which you want to upload the teaching plan file. Then use the "browse" button to located the physical file on your computer and click the "upload" button.

Once uploaded, the file can be accessed via a hyperlink on the "class info" page next to your class.

Please do not upload any document that is inappropriate for the public to see.

How do I edit my profile?

The administrator will create a profile for each teacher and staff member. To change your profile, you can go to the "teacher" page and click the "update profile" link at the top of the page. After that, you can add or modify information and click the "save" button to save the changes.

Please note that on your staff profile page, information such as your e-mail address and phone number can be different from those in your family profile (if you are also a student or a parent of a student).

A new feature has been added to allow you to upload your personal picture so that it will be displayed on the teacher/staff information page for others to see. All you have to do is browse to the picture file and click the "save" button.

Where can I find information about my students?

Click the "student information" link on the "teacher" page to open the student information page. On this page, you can see all students in your classes. The information displayed include name, date of birth, phone number, and account status, etc. It is also possible for you to see your students in previous semesters.

You are not allowed to see information about students not in your own classes, unless you have the school staff privilege or the administrator privilege.

Sending e-mail to student families

Click the "e-mail student family" link on the "teacher" page to send an e-mail to the families of all students in a class. Again, you can only send e-mails to families in your own classes, unless you are a registration staff worker or an administrator.

How do I enter and view student grade in the system?

First, you need to create the assignment. Click the "Assignments" link next to on the Teacher's Space page. A Class Assignments page will be opened to allow you to input information about the assignment you want to create. The information required for an assignment includes name, type, grading method, and due date, etc.

The Save button will save the assignment. You can come back to modify it at a later time. The Delete button will delete the selected assignment if no grade has been given.

The "Grades" link on the Teacher's Space page or the "Enter Student Grades" link on the Class Assignments page will open another page for you to enter grades. Just select the class, the assignment, and the student, from dropdown list boxes, and enter the grade (either a letter grade or a number grade depending on the grading method of the selected assignment). Clicking the Save button will save the grade into the system. The Delete button will clear a previously entered grade.

If you want to see grades of all students in the class, click the "View all grades for this assignment" link.

Note Please note that only the teacher of the class and the school administrator can see the grades. We will be adding another feature that allows the student or the family to obtain grades via e-mail.

System Operations (for staff only)

How to search for family and student information?

Go to the staff page. Enter search criteria such as last name, first name, phone number, or e-mail address. Then select what information you want to search (family, student, or staff), and click the "search" button.

The result set will be displayed on the screen. The result set will contain links that lead you to the corresponding page for the selected family.

How do I enter a payment record?

First, you need to search for the family you want to update. If the family is found, click the corresponding link in the result set to open the "my family" page for the selected family.

Click the "make payment" link at the top of the page. Then select the appropriate payment method and payment code, enter the check number (if paying by check) and amount. Finally, click the "save" button.

How do I update record for a family?

First, you need to search for the family you want to update. If the family is found, click the corresponding link in the result set to open the "my family" page for the selected family.

Then you can use links on that page to add/update/delete a student, register/drop a class, enter a payment, etc.

How to send e-mail to a large group of people?

For example, we may need to send a school announcement to all families or a reminder to all families that still have unpaid balance.

After logon, go to the "staff" page and click the "more..." link, then click the "mass e-mail" link. You will be taken to a new page for e-mailing large groups of people. You can select to send e-mail to the following groups

  • Current teachers

  • All staff members

  • Families with overdue balance

  • Overpaid families (refund due)

  • All families
Enter the subject and text of the e-mail and click the "send" button. If there are too many recipients, the system will break them into smaller groups and send the e-mail to each group automatically.

I just made a change in the system, but the old information is still displayed on the page. Why?

Some pages refresh themselves automatically while others you have to do it manually. In most cases, if you close the current page and go back to it again the information will be up-to-date.

It is possible that the problem you are having is a bug in the system. If you think this is the case, please report it to the system administrator via e-mail.

How do I switch a student from one class to another?

Click the Switch Class link on the Staff page.

Then you can select a class from which you want to switch, a student from the class, and a new class to switch the student to. Click the "confirm" button to complete the operation.

Where can I find a previous registraion or a previous payment record?

There are several ways to do this. If you know the name of one of the parents or the phone number, then you can search for it by entering the name and/or the phone number on the "staff" page and click the "search" button.

You can also search by date range or other criteria such as "class name" for registration record or "check number" for payment record. Click the "more..." link on the "staff" page and use the apppropriate option from there.


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